What's past the end of space?
Astronomer Warren Hurley, of Auckland's Stardome Observatory, says the furthest galaxies that we can observe seem to be receding from us at almost the speed of light. We cannot see further than them, as the light has not had time to reach us.
The universe may be infinite, or it may end just outside this light horizon. We cannot tell.
If the universe does have what we perceive to be a boundary, we need to keep in mind that when the universe came into being it wasn't just matter that was created, but time and space. In this sense, to ask what is beyond the universe is meaningless.
Perhaps our universe is one of many universes. They may have different physical laws or dimensions from our own and exist within an even larger reality.
Such questions have been asked by philosophers and scientists for thousands of years.
Stardome
Space Telescope Science Institute
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